I wonder what kind of charging solution Apple intends to ship with the pencil? Will they offer a charging cable that is USB to Lightning female connection? Or will it be some kind of adapter that plugs into the bottom of the iPad allowing two lightning devices to be connected, like the HDMI adapter?

I wonder what kind of charging solution Apple intends to ship with the pencil? Will they offer a charging cable that is USB to Lightning female connection? Or will it be some kind of adapter that plugs into the bottom of the iPad allowing two lightning devices to be connected, like the HDMI adapter?

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Go watch the video, it shows the pencil has a lightning connector to charge from your ipad.

I'm willing to bet the price of the pencil has some sort of lightning cable included in it. I think requiring the pencil to be charged 100% via the Pro would be way too awkward (risk of the pencil being hit on a table and then being knocked to the floor for example).

I do hope it comes with the stand they were showing at the announcement

So at the end of a long day where I've been using both the pencil, and boosting the charge from a now depleted iPad, I'm supposed to plug in my iPad to charge for the night while I go to bed, then charge my pen in the morning when I wake up in the iPad, which depletes who knows how much of the iPad's charge, before I can start doing anything for the day? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Apple may not introduce a dual charging "kludge", but I'll guarantee you there will be a way to charge the Pencil independently from the iPad.

First of all, the "15 seconds of charge = 30 minutes of battery life" may be achieved through some sort of fast charging, so it may not consistently charge at that speed. Although I don't see the Apple Pencil requiring too much power, so it may just charge up very quickly which would mean that it won't really deplete the iPad Pro's battery life all that much, especially considering how large the iPad Pro's battery probably is in comparison to the Pencil.

I also don't think that requiring the iPad to be used for charging is that much of an issue, since the average user will probably not be using the Apple Pencil constantly for hours on end. The Pencil probably holds power for a long time, so someone could charge it a few days before, or if they forget then they can charge it up the day of for a little while, or perhaps for the couple minutes they need to have a substantial charge to use for a couple hours. Then they would probably at some point have to take a break or do something else, and the Pencil could be charged during that time.

Like seriously, you could take a 5 minutes bathroom break, and the Pencil would probably charge a significant amount of time.

So at the end of a long day where I've been using both the pencil, and boosting the charge from a now depleted iPad, I'm supposed to plug in my iPad to charge for the night while I go to bed, then charge my pen in the morning when I wake up in the iPad, which depletes who knows how much of the iPad's charge, before I can start doing anything for the day? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Apple may not introduce a dual charging "kludge", but I'll guarantee you there will be a way to charge the Pencil independently from the iPad.

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Yeah, some people routinely work through lunch and dinner and never take a bathroom break. They never plug into a charger partway through the day, they use their equipment non-stop from the moment they wake until the moment they sleep. Battery capacity is finite, and their needs are infinite. Look, up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's Super User!

Seriously? The iPad Pro has been designed to be the power source for both the Pencil and the Smart Keyboard. The battery is 40% larger than the iPad Air 2, yet Apple rates both batteries to be good for 10 hours of web browsing. Is all that extra power needed for the larger display, or is a bit of it set aside for the keyboard and Pencil, too?

I'm willing to believe Apple has worked this into their design parameters, but others may suspect that Apple is its usual, incompetent self. That they, by themselves, have thought of things an army of engineers hadn't considered; that they, like the boy in the Emperor's New Clothes, sees something nobody else has.

I'm sure Mophie will have something for folks to buy, even before they know whether they really need it. Maybe it'll be a sphere that sits atop the Pencil, making it resemble a water tower....

Was talking to someone the other day... He has a late 2012 27" iMac with 8 GB RAM. Wanted to know if he should ditch the two 4 GB modules and max-out the 4 slots to 32 GB. "Have you been having any issues?" No. "How do you use the iMac?" Just some web browsing and word processing. "Video editing?" No.... Why not run Activity Monitor for a while and see whether you need more RAM? "Maybe I'll just keep the two installed modules and bring it up to 24 GB..." I probably could have sold him a guitar amp with knobs that go to "11."

First of all, the "15 seconds of charge = 30 minutes of battery life" may be achieved through some sort of fast charging, so it may not consistently charge at that speed.
...
I also don't think that requiring the iPad to be used for charging is that much of an issue, since the average user will probably not be using the Apple Pencil constantly for hours on end....

Like seriously, you could take a 5 minutes bathroom break, and the Pencil would probably charge a significant amount of time.

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Well for starters, Apple states their battery technology is designed to fast charge for up to 80%, then trickle charge for the remaining 20%. It can take an iPhone as much as twice the fast charge rate to achieve a full 100% charge. If the Pencil is the same, then it'll be more like 12min. Still agreed not a major issue as far as charge times go.

The device is being branded iPad Pro. So the average "Pro" user is probably going to use it more consistently than a regular iPad. And I don't know how the pencil uses power anyway. Is it 12 hours of actively pressing the Pencil tip onto the glass? Or is it 12 hours just sitting there? If the former, then I suspect the pencil may be good for days, even with "pro" use. I've no doubt the iPad itself will run out of power long before the Pencil does. And yes they could probably recharge it during a 5 minute bathroom break. But that's not really the point. They shouldn't have to.

There's no reason I shouldn't be able to plug in all my devices at the end of the day to make sure they are fully charged and ready to go the next regardless what I do. My iPhone, my Watch, my MacBook, my iPad Pro, and yes now my Pencil. Unlike the others, the Pencil is the only device that can't be used with any existing dedicated charging cable that Apple makes. The only apparent way to charge it is to stick it into the iPad Pro (I doubt any other device firmware will enable drawing from its battery), which precludes charging it at the same time, or accessing the Lightning port when in use for another function. So I don't personally believe Apple intends plugging the Pencil into the iPad Pro as the sole way to charge it. It would be kind of annoying if you wanted to take that 5 minute break while surfing the web on your iPad Pro with a rod sticking out of the bottom.

Seriously? The iPad Pro has been designed to be the power source for both the Pencil and the Smart Keyboard. The battery is 40% larger than the iPad Air 2, yet Apple rates both batteries to be good for 10 hours of web browsing. Is all that extra power needed for the larger display, or is a bit of it set aside for the keyboard and Pencil, too?

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And yet the iPad Pro can be plugged in charging while using and powering the keyboard.

Do you really think the Pencil will be supported only by the iPad Pro? By your argument, what will all of those smaller capacity batteries do if they have to recharge the pencil? In which case, so much for that theory.

And I've never gotten the advertised battery life out of any Apple product. So there's that.

Not likely. I don't think there's any device that can currently use an iDevice as a battery pack. While various devices can draw power, it's usually limited -- Apple devices limit the power output anyway. And I get the sense the Pencil draws a lot more power than any other device to quickly charge it's battery, something Apple likely enables on the iPad Pro only for now.

I have to agree with some of the posters who said that the charging method for the pencil (at least as it has been demonstrated so far) is a poor, inelegant solution. When I first saw the pencil plugged into the iPP my first thought was "it's awkwardly designed," quickly followed by "the lightning connector on the pencil could easily snap off." Actually kind of shocked considering it's a Jony Ive design, or at least one he had to have approved.

So at the end of a long day where I've been using both the pencil, and boosting the charge from a now depleted iPad, I'm supposed to plug in my iPad to charge for the night while I go to bed, then charge my pen in the morning when I wake up in the iPad, which depletes who knows how much of the iPad's charge, before I can start doing anything for the day? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Apple may not introduce a dual charging "kludge", but I'll guarantee you there will be a way to charge the Pencil independently from the iPad.

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First world problems. You can wait 6 minutes for the pencil to charge in the morning bro.

I think it's actually a great design choice. Sure it's a little odd looking, but it makes perfect sense. Why would you want to add another charger to the list of things you have to remember to bring somewhere?

And you don't have to worry about being on the go and having your pencil run out of battery while on a project.

Does anybody actually build a cable with a USB A plug to a Lightning receptacle?

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Yes. Not sure if they are Apple certified. Part of the reason why I'm hoping Apple releases one with the Pencil, so that it can be used with other Apple Lightning devices. I have an Lightning extension cable for use with my Video dongle, but it's not Apple certified so the dongle rejects it.

I think it's actually a great design choice. Sure it's a little odd looking, but it makes perfect sense. Why would you want to add another charger to the list of things you have to remember to bring somewhere?

And you don't have to worry about being on the go and having your pencil run out of battery while on a project.

I'm sure it will charge in like a couple minutes.

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What a surprise ... Apple will release an adapter to allow the Pencil to be charged at the same time as the iPad Pro.

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